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| Hiking | 20.15 Miles |
4,785 AEG |
| | Hiking | 20.15 Miles | 10 Hrs 34 Mns | | 2.16 mph |
| 4,785 ft AEG | 1 Hour 13 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Early meetup in Mesa with Kelly, John, and Wally, and we got to the Campaign trailhead just before 0700. The road is in good condition right now, some sand, but not too bad, medium clearance AWD is all you need. Temps in the 30s, which felt refreshing.
Some water in the creek, but easily hopped over. John was sad we didn’t have to swim across. At the Campaign/Reavis Gap jct, we debated which direction to complete the loop. We opted for counter-clockwise, which ended up being the right call. Clockwise would have been a tougher day.
Reavis Gap trail was in reasonably good shape. Wally pointed out some ruins, and various items of interest. It’s fun hiking with the local expert—he also told a ghost story. Views were good, and the prior day’s rain had knocked all the dust down.
We were only on Reavis trail for the duration of the ranch area, which was deserted. We had a snack break at the ranch, then made our way onto Fireline.
Fireline is in rougher shape. Most is still fairly easy to follow, but manzanita will take over some spots within a few years if not cut back. Views are more open than they used to be.
We made our way over to Circlestone—that route has become more vague, but common sense and cairns keep you mostly on track. Had another snack break at Circlestone, and encountered our first hiker of the day—a man who was wandering around looking for his lost cellphone. It seemed like he had been taking the wrong way up to Mound Mtn when he lost it. We tried calling it, but no luck. He quickly gave up on the phone and decided to keep hiking to Reavis North. He assured us he knew the way, however, he did not know how to leave Circlestone. Wally escorted him to the first few cairns.
After that, we headed over to Mound. Far less manzanita than there used to be. Crawling thru that mess almost a decade ago with Lee, Rick, and Bob was a distant memory. It’s now fairly clear. The steep 300’ climb is still steep. Lots of slippery dead leaves as you scale the mountainside. Luckily, there are lots of trees to hang onto and pull yourself up. Not all of the trees are firmly rooted. There was some discussion of the minimum trunk diameter needed to inspire confidence/trust. Once along the ridge, it was a quick walk over to the summit. Views were great, Wally could see Mt Ord, or something with towers on top. Kelly worked on identifying some scat near the benchmark. Eventually, we worked up the courage to descend Mound. It wasn’t too bad, the trees controlled our descent. We saw one other hiker as we were leaving Circlestone.
It was nice to see a large amount of pines still standing along Fireline. Tons of bear scat, mostly old, but some newer. The eastern end of Fireline is in rougher shape, especially the final quarter mile.
Campaign Trail has seen better days. At times we stayed in the creekbed, other times we found what was left of the trail. One deeply eroded channel needed to be crossed. Easy enough for the guys with longer legs. Wally suggested Kelly and I get a running start. Ha. We opted for a helping hand instead. As we headed north, the catclaw increased. We followed the trail as much as we could, but at times, I think we would have been better off in the creekbed. Saw some cattle. There was more water in places than we were expecting, but it was not an obstacle to travel. Eventually, Kelly and I gave up on finding the trail and stayed in the creekbed until we caught up to John & Wally at the Reavis Gap jct. The final
1.40 miles out was easy, and we finished with some daylight to spare. I would not hike Campaign Trail again until it sees some significant maintenance.
Overall, a fun day, with plenty of good conversation while we covered a lot of ground. Caught some of the RenFest traffic in Gold Canyon, but it wasn’t the end of the world. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
The views over the first 4 miles are really quite spectacular, though largely the same over the entire stretch. And while it's definitely worth doing, I certainly refreshed my memory of why all my subsequent trips were from the south. Nonetheless, it was nice to set foot on this stretch of trail once again.
It's not too often that the forecast is off by 20 degrees. Powers Garden is another spot with similar conditions!
Route 
We met up and left for the trailhead at 5:00am. No renaissance traffic that early and no delays on the way. FR 449 has some sand but an easy drive for any all wheel drive vehicle at present condition. The was a cool but as we started to climb the Reavis Gap trail you warmed up. The Campaign trail to Reavis Gap is easy going. The Reavis Gap trail was easy to follow, steep in sections with better footing going up than if you hiked down. We took a break at Reavis Ranch as I mistakenly thought most of the climb was out of the way. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
The Fireline trail up to the Circlestome spur was okay with a few wash outs to cross. The spur trail to Circlestone seemed longer than in the past going back and forth but looking at my GPS track it was fairly straight forward. We took another break at Circlestone where the guy who lost his cell phone came out of nowhere and talked to us. The hike up to Mound Mountain looked tough but we took the ascent at a metered pace so it wasn't that bad. The hike down and back to the Fireline trail was a nice break from the climbs. The Fireline trail down to Campaign Creek was okay at first, then a little overgrown, then some moonscape, and finally disappears into the overgrowth before emerging into the creek. The Campaign trail is overgrown is places, washed out in places but passable and we maintained a decent pace given the condition. In years past the creek was overgrown but the creek is open in most areas if you can't find the trail. A good group to hike with as we hiked and regrouped and rested and trail searched to make the trip go as smoothly as possible. I've hiked worse trails and but would recommend having a track if you plan to try it. Thanks to Linda for driving, good to hike with Kelly again and nice to meet John.
. He said he'd be fine and wouldn't have any problems navigating back to his car at Reavis North without his phone. He took off, then returned minutes later because he couldn't find the trail down from Circlestone, so Wally pointed him in the right direction. Not a great start, but hopefully the guy eventually found his way off the mountain and to a T-Mobile store...
Moist
